49ers' Kaepernick offers harsh assessment of Clinton, Trump

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) San Francisco 49ers backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has become a key figure in a growing protest against racial inequality, had a harsh assessment of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump a day after the first presidential debate.

''To me, it was embarrassing to watch that these are our two candidates,'' Kaepernick said Tuesday. ''Both are proven liars and it almost seems like they're trying to debate who's less racist. And at this point, talking with one of my friends, it was, you have to pick the lesser of two evils, but in the end, it's still evil.''

Kaepernick also responded to a statement Trump made during an August radio interview in which he said Kaepernick's anthem protest wasn't ''a good thing'' and that the athlete might want to find a country that works better for him.

Kaepernick said it was ''a very ignorant statement, that if you don't agree with what's going on here and that if you want justice and liberty and freedom for all that you should leave the country.''